Robert Griffin III Says He Did Not Want To See Rob Parker Get Fired From ESPN

It’s this bio—a military brat with a white wife (they got married in July), a bright and ambitious 23-year-old black man who frequently mentions law school and post-football political aspirations but refuses to name his political orientation—that has fascinated so many people and confused not a few others. None more so, perhaps, than Rob Parker, a former commentator on ESPN’s First Take. One day last December, after RG3 had given an interview in which he said, for about the millionth time, that he didn’t want to be “defined” by his race, Parker shocked even his co-commentator, Stephen A. Smith (impressive!), when he said, “My question, which is just a straight honest question: Is he a brother, or is he a cornball brother?… He’s black, he kind of does his thing, but he’s not really down with the cause. He’s not one of us.” The comments leaped off the show and into the national conversation, sparking an ugly debate about RG3’s “blackness.” Parker was suspended and eventually let go.

Now, in the Redskins weight room, I notice RG3 giving me a look as he mouths the lyrics to the song he’s just cued up, like he wants to make sure I notice. I’m labeled a thug because I come from the gutter / Robert made it out now he a cornball brother—what? / That was such a stupid argument / Now Rob Parker working at the supermarket, ha!!! It’s called “Changed the Game,” and it’s by Quistar, a rapper from Waco, Texas, who knows Griffin from their high-school days. Who still says “Down for the cause,” dawg, it’s 2013 / Would you say that’s a slap in the face to Martin Luther King’s dream.

I laugh and RG3 cracks a big satisfied grin back. When I express surprise that I haven’t heard the song, his answer is unexpected. “I haven’t blown the song up, because I don’t think it’s right to make fun of Rob Parker for losing his job,” he says. “There’s some wrong in what he said, but there’s some wrong in him losing his job as well. And I don’t want people to think that I, you know, that I’m trying to stick it to Rob Parker, or that I’m happy he lost his job. But I was very unhappy with the things he said. I mean, why did he say that?”

Yeah Rob, why DID you say that dumb isht? RGIII is a good kid and this was probably the right thing to say, but I think we all know the truth about how he REALLY felt…